Machine for treating fibers or threads



Feb. 7, 1928. 1,658,357

0. SCHAFER MACHINE FOR TREATING FIBERS OR THREADS Filed June 29. 1926 l I 48 4/ O I 'I O o 50 0 o #9 o 0 45- Z3 0 4.1

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INVENTOR ATTORNEY Patented Feb. 7, 1928.

UNITED STATES PATENT: OFFICE.

' or'ro surname. or vmnsnn, GERMANY;

' MACHINE eon TREATING Ermine on 'rrmnans.

Application filed June 29, 1926, Serial Nansen; and in Germany September 7, 192 s.

This invention relates to the manufacture of fibrous materials and has particular ref-' erence to strands of varying composition such as rayon or the like.

Among the objects of this inventionsis to and particularly to artificial 1 composition products. 5

Another object of this invention is to pros vide a machine which may be used in connection with strands or threads of varying character to provide a beatingaction to 1 reference characters designate the sameimprove the strands. I

Another object of this invention is to provide a novel method of treating strandsfor threads of widely. differentcomposition but with particular '1 reference to v strands such as rayon silk whereby a high gloss or appearance of the degree of uniformity of thickness of the strands can beobtained and the appearance of. the strands generally improved.

With the foregoingnnd other objects in view the invention consists in the arrangement and-combinationof parts hereinafter described and claimed, and while the invention isnot restricted to the exact details of still for the purpose of illustrating a practical embodiment thereof reference 1s had to the a'ccompanylng 'drawings in which like parts in the several views, and inwl1ich--' Flgure 1 is a plan view of a machine with parts broken away.

Fig- 2 is a sectional view approximately on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Figs. 3, 4, and 5 are diagrams illustrating the operation of the machineand the different steps of the method.

Referring now more specifically to the drawings I show my invention .as comprising a plurality of spaced members 10 and 11 which are so arranged as to be relatively movable, the strands or skeins beingsupported upon said members and the improvement in the character of the strands being obtained as a result of a novel co-operation of the members 10 and 11. Suitable means is provided to support said members in artificialfru'sto-conical member 16 that engages in the manner of a clutch a loose pulley 17. A

fixedmember or bracket 18 is support'edrigidly by a bearing 14; and provides. an arm to which is pivotally connected at 1-9' a shlfter bar 20 which engages between the clutch member 16 and the collar 21. -By

movement of the shifter bar about its pivot the clutch member is engaged or disengaged with the loose pulley as desired and the machine operated or brought to restac cordingly.

Mounted onthe shaft 15 is an eccentric including adisk member 22 of any suitable form or construction and provided "with .22 is coaxial with the shaft15 andrigidly connected thereto. A shaft 2 1 hasfixed connection or co-operation with the disk 22 in eccentric relation therewith and the roller 11 is mounted 'coaxially on said shaft and arranged to rotate with respect to saidshaft with comparative ease asby mean's of balls 25. Friction or clutch means26 is arranged construction disclosedor suggest-ed herein,

upon the surface of the rollerll in any suitable manner to engage or gripa pluholes '23 which are angula'rly spaced along equally spaced from each other angularly.

Engaging means is provided to engage or contact a roller 11 at a certain predetermined point of its movement in its eccentric path and preferably at that point where the roller' 11 is at its'greatest distance from the roller 10 for a. purpose tobe described hereinafter. Said engaging means maybe constructed in any suitable manner-Within the scope of this invention but for purposes of illustration I show a bracket 27 which has flange 28 faced with suitable friction material 29 while'the roller 11 is provided with an engaging or friction ring 30' coaxial therewith and of a larger size thansaid roller so as to freely and easily make contact with the friction means 29 as shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

The roller 10 is mounted preferably in relatively fixed position upon the machine although adjusting means'can be used in r being provided with a bearing 33 within which a shaft 34 is receivable. The roller is mounted for easy rotation on the shaft 34 being supported by suitable anti-friction means such as the balls 35. Means is provided to tilt the link 32 within predetermined limits as may be found necessary ac- 1 cording to the length of a skein S of strand that is supported on the rollers 10 and 11, said means taking preferably the form of a worm or screw 36 which has connection with the shaft 34 by means of a hub 37 the other end of the screw being supported upon a bracket 38 which is fixedly mounted on the base of the machine. A nut 39 having holes 40 to receive a wrench whereby the nut may be rotated is internally threaded to receive the screw 36 and co-operates with the hearing 41 so as to be retained against longitudinal movement. Thus if the nut 39 is rotated whether in one direction or in another, the result is that a corresponding longitudinal movement of the screw with respect to the bracket 38 will occur and the link 32 will be tilted accordingly, thus varying the spacing between the roller 10 and the path of eccentric movement of the roller 11. Thebearing 41 is provided with an arcuate surface 42 against which is arranged to bear a washer 43 to permit of a certain amount of tilting movement of the screw which occurs to a limited extent. The specific showing or co-operation of the details of this construction being largely conventional, is not shown in the drawings. A cap 44 is provided on the free end of the screw 36 to protect the end of the screw and at the same time to prevent excessive tilting of the link 32 toward the roller 11. Both of the rollers 10 and 11 are provided with coaxial conical members or points 45 at their free ends to facilitate the mounting of a skein or the like on said rollers.

As shown in the drawings the machine is machine being exactly alike. In this way a high'degree of compactness in the construction of the machine is obtained and the machine may be used for treatment of a. maximum number of strands at one time consistent with the size of the machine and the amount of floor space used.

Indicating means is provided whereby the distance of the roller 10 from the center of the eccentric path of the roller 11 can be obtained, such indicating means comprising a rule 46 consisting of a strip of metal which is fastened at 47 to the bearing 37 a pointer or indicator 48 being movable along said rule, said pointer being secured to the bearing 41. The rule is preferably slotted at 49 to receive a tongue 50 of the pointer which projects upwardly through said slot and engages the rule about the slot so as to form a strong sliding connection therewith. The point 50 thus moves along the marks 51 on said rule according as the roller 10 is moved toward or away from the roller 11. By suitable calibration of the rule the reading obtained may be any that may be found necessary or convenient in the operation of the machine.

The operation of the machine may be briefly described as follows: A plurality of loops or strands or threads are placed upon the rollers 10 and 11 and the disk 22 rotated.

manually by a wrench or the like inserted into a hole 23 in the direction of normal rotation of the pulley 17 until the friction member 30 makes contact with the brake shoe at which time the skeins S should be in approximately taut condition as shown in Fig. 3. It may be necessary at this time to operate the screw 36 to move the roller 10 in order to secure such condition of the skeins. The machine is now started by eugaging the clutch member 16 with. the looose pulley, thus causing revolution of the roller 11 along its path a and about the axis of the shaft 15. However, engagement as between the member 30 and the brake shoe while these parts are in contact with each other, which condition will obtain through an angle of approximately 90. will cause the roller 11 to move in the direction of arrow 25 and in opposite relation to the direction of movement of the roller 11 along its path which direction might be designated by arrow 0. The under part of the skein S is accordingly placed under tension is thus intermittent and consists of approximately a quarter turn for every c l t :5;

movement of the roller 11 along its path a. As the roller 11 cont1nues in its movement the position shown in Fig. '5 is reached wherein the roller 11 is at its nearest position with respect to the roller 10, thus causing a sagging of that portion of the skein S which 15 between said rollers. Owing to the intermittent character of the rotation of the rollers a portion of the skein between the rollers constantly changes, the strands of the skein being shifted to a predetermined extent every time that the rollers rotate. Operation of the machine is continued for a predetermined length of time as may be desirable or necessary but the movement of the rollers 10 and 11 is entirely constant and uniform throughout the operation of. the machine. roller 10 undergoing merely an intermittent rotationalv movement in the direction of arrow 5, while roller 11 undergoes a combined movement consisting of the intermittent rotation in the direction of a1 row 6 and the continuous revolution in the direction of arrowc. The skein S is thus subjected to a uniform intermittent ten sioning action as shown in Fig. 4 and to a beating action as shown in Fig. 5. The beating actionmay be defined more particularly as a rubbing or movement of the strands of the skein S againsteach other incident to the sagging of that portion of the skein between the rollers. The effect of this beating action is to increase the gloss on the strands or threads of the skein or otherwise to improve the appearance thereof. The effect of the tensioning or stretching action is to render the thickness of the strands more uniform.

This invention includes a novel process which can be practised independently and apart from the machine described herein and is adapted for use with strands or fibers of any character or composition, but is particularly adapted for the manufacture of rayon silk to which I refer for purposes of illustration; Rayon silk is universally known as an artificial composition product which is formed by squeezing a plastic material through a die having extremely fine holes. The strands which are produced are, however, of varying thickness and so lead to certain irregularities in the woven product which is formed therefrom. These variations in thickness are extremely minute so as to be almost impossible to detect by examination of the strands, but after the fabric has been woven from these strands and the same is dyed, certain shining spots appear on the fabric, and these spots have been proved to becaused by the varying thicknesses of the strands which are used in the manufacture of the fabric.- It becomes therefore essential to secure a strand of rayon silk which is of relatively uniform thickness. My invention contemplates the subjecting of the strands of rayon silkto a stretching action, and, more particularly, an intermittent tensioning. I prefer to manipulate the strands before the composition ofwhich they are formed has entirely set. In other words, after the strands have been forced from the die and are arranged in a suitable manner 'to be handled in the form of skeins or the like and before they have entirely set, these strands are subjected to the intermittent tensioning described herein. The result is that after the strands have been subjected to such action for a predetermined length of time, thestrands become of more even thickness and a fabric which is woven from these strands will not show the shining spots when dyed which has been found so objectionable in fabrics here- 1. A machine for obtaining a uniform thickness of strands, comprising a plurality of spaced members to receive a skein of strand, one of said members being mounted on an eccentric for movement toward and away from the other member, engaging means being provided engageable with the movable member when the same has moved away from the other member so asto cause a rotation of the movable member in opposite direction relative to the movement of the eccentric and due to the movement of the movable member in its eccentric path thus stretching a side of'the skein.

2. A machine as set forth in claim 1 wherein said members constitute rollers, the movable roller having frictional thread engaging means extending lengthwise thereof to effectively stretch the skein as aforesaid and cause rotationof the other roller.

3. A machine. as set forth in claim 1 wherein the movable member is arranged to move toward the other member a. distance to cause a sagging and beating of the strands of the skein.

4. A machine of the class described comprising a roller, pivoted means supporting the same, a roller spaced from the first mentioned roller, means including an eccentric supporting the second roller to cause the same to move intermittently toward and away from the first-mentioned roller, the pivoted means permitting the first mentioned roller to be adjusted relative to the path of movementof the second roller ac cording to the length of a skein to be re ceived 011 said rollers, and a brake member arranged to engage the second roller when the same has moved approximately to its limiting position away from the first mentioned rollerto cause a rotation of the second roller in a direction opposite to that in which the eccentric is moving and until the second roller begins to move toward the first mentioned roller and away from the brake member, theradius of the eccentric being such as to permit of a considerable sag of the skein when the rollers are in closest position to each other and to render the skein taut and effective to rotate the first mentioned roller when the second roller is rotated as aforesaid.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

, o'rro soniirnn, 

